Written by

Quartz Staff

March 13, 2014

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Written by

Quartz Staff

March 13, 2014

What to watch for today

The Malaysian Airlines disappearance gets even weirder. The plane flew an additional four hours from its last confirmed location, according to data automatically transmitted by its engines. US counterterrorism officials are investigating whether someone “diverted it toward an undisclosed location.”

American spending is back in the black. Analysts expect retail sales to have grown 0.1% last month, after contracting by 0.4% in January. As 70% of GDP is driven by consumer spending, that would be happy news for the US economy.

The pope’s anniversary. It’s one year since white smoke billowed out of the Sistine Chapel’s chimney. Pope Francis will be marking the occasion with a spiritual retreat.

A driver crashed into the SXSW crowds. A car fleeing a police alcohol checkpoint in Austin, Texas, killed two people and injured at least 21 after barreling into a street full of people attending the popular music and technology conference.

Panasonic unveiled a smog bonus. The Japanese firm said it would pay a premium to workers it sends to China (paywall), due to the hazardously high levels of pollution there that can increase the risk of asthma, cancer, and heart problems.

Leo Mirani on what the future of in-car navigation will look like. “Carmakers have been experimenting with head-up displays (HUD) in cars since the late 1990s. But early efforts have been cautious, displaying only speed and other basic information near the bottom of the windscreen. New technologies allow them to be bolder: the authors see HUD, long used by fighter pilots, as becoming a natural part of looking through the windshield, and, in some cases, being embedded on real-world objects such as the road or buildings. It is Borges’s 1:1 map come to life.” Read more here.